Operation of User Equipment (UE) in cellular communication networks, such as Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA) networks (also referred to as Long Term Evolution—LTE), requires the knowledge of cell-specific System Information (SI) parameters that the network broadcasts to the UEs in each cell over Broadcast Channel messages. Signaling of SI to LTE UEs is specified by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) in “Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA) Radio Resource Control (RRC); Protocol specification (Release 8),” TS 36.331, version 8.6.0, June, 2009, section 5.2, and in “Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); User Equipment (UE) procedures in idle mode (Release 8),” TS 36.304, version 8.8.0, December, 2009, which are incorporated herein by reference.
The background description provided herein is presented as a general overview of related art in this field and should not be construed as an admission that any of the information it contains constitutes prior art against the present patent application.